North Chocolate was a fleeting joke of an idea to its owners at first.
Yellowknife residents Hamza El Ghazlani and Yassine Riahi established their small business in November 2024. This year, they hope to expand their products within the Yellowknife market and, eventually, all over the North.
“We want to start with a northern fingerprint on it,” Riahi told Cabin Radio this week.
North Chocolate has grown rapidly in the past year. As of February 2025, the company’s chocolate can be found at Javaroma’s downtown and airport locations as well as Bush Order Provisions.
Most recently, Rochdi’s Independent Grocer in uptown Yellowknife began carrying North Chocolate, as did the Gallery of the Midnight Sun, another northern and locally owned business.
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“When we started this company, we always saw that there are lots of chocolate brands coming from down south and the United States,” said Riahi. “So we thought our mission here is we want to be a chocolate brand that goes down south, and why not the United States?”
El Ghazlani and Riahi say they are passionate about giving as much representation to northerners as they can.
“On the packaging, we have the aurora, and then we wanted to put towards here a big ‘Made in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories,'” said Riahi, gesturing to the artwork.
“As you see on the packaging, we have aurora. Most of the tourists, they came here just for the aurora,” said El Ghazlani.
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All of their chocolate is made by their own hands in Yellowknife. Their products, which include three flavours in both milk chocolate and semi-sweet dark chocolate, have already reached the hands of people across the world.
“Right now, we have some pictures that show our chocolate is in Paris, in China and in Japan,” said El Ghazlani.
They are currently producing their chocolate from home. One of their hopes for the new year is to find a storefront of their own to rent out.
They would like everyone to know: “You can expect high quality, always and forever.”
